Gasoline Scandal

G.I.s were known to be selling Army gasoline in the French black market (TIME, Oct. 2). But even before MPs cracked down, the quantities were not enough to fuel more than a small share of the flagrant boom in pleasure driving. As more & more civilian cars appeared around Paris nightclubs, the scandal-perceptive French began to smell something.

Last week the scandal broke. After seething for days, Paris newspapers lashed out bitterly at short-memoried French playboys, barging about the capital in fancy cars. More in the know, the U.S. Army spoke more sternly: it announced the assignment of a large number of added guards (rumor said a whole division) to its Normandy pipelines, with orders to shoot to kill.

Lieut. Colonel Earl R. Chase, boss of gasoline supply in Normandy, sadly admitted that black-market looters had been tapping thousands of gallons of gasoline out of the lines every day. Hijackers had also been raiding trains and trucks for Army food and cigarets. By adding guards, speeding up schedules, and eliminating long layovers, such food losses were reduced to a trickle. With the help of French police, who have ordered heavy penalties for pilfering, the gasoline leakage has already been partially plugged.

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